


We're Here Now

by scrambledgreggs



Category: Lemonverse
Genre: M/M, Mechtie, Mild Case of the Angst, Night Terrors, Post-MMO, Post-Machine, Reminiscing, Repost of old fic, but it's ok it's hurt/COMFORT
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-06-17
Packaged: 2020-05-13 06:48:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19245991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scrambledgreggs/pseuds/scrambledgreggs
Summary: Nofy and Mac share a couple of bad memories, and a couple good ones too.





	We're Here Now

**Author's Note:**

> Repost of an old fic from 2017!

Dark. Cramped. Hot. Horribly hot. Like being trapped in a radiator. Sweltering metal clamped against his body like a vice, the heat robbing him of any energy. He sucked in a shallow breath of muggy, acrid air, and attempted to wiggle his arms free from his sides. They remained put, stuck there permanently. The heat only became worse, panic rising in his chest. _I'm going to die in here. I'm going to die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die no no I don't wanna die in here I don't wanna die_

 

He bolted upright in his bed, flinging sweat-soaked sheets off of himself in terror. He wheezed frantically, taking in long, deep breaths of cool air. He opened his eyes to the darkened bedroom he sat in. Quiet, still, nicely air conditioned. The moon softly illuminated the floor through the slats in the blinds. He sighed. A quiet voice spoke from beside one of the windows.

 

“Mac? Are you okay?”

 

Nofy loomed next to the wall, partially lit by the moonlight. His eyebrows were knit together with worry, naturally so, Mac had just awoken in a panic, gasping for air. He sighed, leaning back into the bed.

 

“Bad dream?”

 

“Mhm,” Mac replied, nodding. Nofy slowly walked to the other side of the bed, sitting himself down next to Mac.

 

“Wanna talk about it?”

 

“Mhm.”

 

Mac leaned himself on Nofy’s shoulder, clasping his hands together. Nofy gently ran a hand through his hair, tracing his fingers down the back of Mac's head soothingly.

 

“It was the vent dream again,” he began, restlessly wringing his hands. “I thought I was going to die.”

 

“But you’re okay now,” Nofy replied.

 

“I… yeah. I am. It's just, scary to think about.”

 

“What?”

 

He turned his head to face him, a tired look in his eyes. “How many times I almost died in there, without even really knowing. It's… I'm sorry, Nofy.”

 

“It's okay Mac. You're here now.”

 

“I am.”

 

Mac unclasped his hands and wrapped his arms around Nofy, hugging him tightly and burying his face in his shoulder. His thoughts raced through every single close call, near miss, and brush with death he’d ever had while stuck in his dissociative and restless fog. The time down the elevator shaft, the saws-all, the helicopters, the tanks-

 

“Hey,” Nofy started, turning and placing a hand on Mac's chin, tilting his head to face his.

 

“It's okay.”

 

Nofy softly smiled, but with a tinge of somberness. Nevertheless, a certain warmth and comfort radiated from him, making Mac feel at ease. They held eye contact for a few moments before leaning in and kissing each other. Mac gently pulled his head away and rested it on Nofy’s shoulder, with him resting his head in return. He moved his arm around to Nofy's hand, holding it firmly. It was quite the contrast between the two of them, he noted, his tanned and calloused fingers, laced with scars and burns, intertwined with Nofy's thin and graceful digits, seemingly flawless against his. They sat there for a few minutes in silence, taking comfort in each other’s company.

 

“Nofy?”

 

“Yes Mac?”

 

“What was it like for you?”

 

The question caught Nofy off guard. He hadn't thought much about what he'd been doing in Mac's absence. At a certain point he'd conceded that he was just... gone forever and that he should forget about him, but when he came back he just got so overwhelmed with wanting to know if Mac was okay, he never really got around to telling him if he was okay. The days blurred together in his memory. Hundreds of sleepless nights spent poring over a mess of papers on his desk, drawing rectangles over and over again, becoming transfixed by the glowing light of the Moon through the windows. A cluttered mind that would forget and forget and remember with painful clarity and forget again. He'd pin a familiar Polaroid to his wall at night and dispassionately take it down in the morning, unable to remember who it was of nor why he put it there. He noticed Mac shifting his head to look at him expectantly, after having not responded. Nofy didn't even know where to begin.

 

“I… didn't sleep a lot. I still don't I guess.”

 

“Is that why you were by the window?”

 

“Yeah. It's getting better but… you know what they say about old habits I guess.”

 

“Mhm.”

 

“Did you not sleep a lot while you were out there?”

 

“I had a routine for a while. At sunrise I’d start, and by sunset I'd turn in for the night, with breaks for food in between. That fell apart after a while though. I'd pass out from exhaustion in the weirdest places, all of my clocks broke and I'd be going to bed at what I thought was 10 pm but was actually 8:30 in the morning, and I think I ate a lizard at one point?”

 

Nofy laughed, then clapped a hand over his mouth, feeling bad about it.

 

“No, it's okay. It was kind of funny in hindsight. Like… how did I even do that?”

 

Nofy smiled, gently squeezing Mac's hand. He recalled an old memory from college.

 

“I don’t know, I've seen your bizarre eating habits. Remember the time you ate a bag of half-thawed peas and an uncooked ramen block for dinner because ‘there are people in the kitchen and I don’t want them to talk to me’?” he said, making air quotes and mimicking Mac’s voice. Mac laughed, something Nofy didn't hear often from him.

 

“Oh whatever. At least I wouldn’t keep forgetting where I’d put my camera when it was clearly hung around my neck!”

 

They giggled at each other's ribbings, Mac having moved his head into Nofy's lap, where Nofy delicately ran his hands through his soft blond hair. The two fondly reminisced what they could, interjecting with stories from their time apart. One where Mac almost bought out an entire Home Depot, another where Nofy recalled the entire week where he had nothing but cereal for every meal, continuing the back and forth as they talked each other into a sleepy lull.

 

“I'd forget I was wearing the night-vision goggles all the time… And I couldn't remember which doors went outside, so at least once a week I'd accidentally walk into broad daylight with them on and have to spend an hour recovering from the headache it would give me.”

 

The word “headache” conjured another memory in Nofy’s brain, and he barely hesitated as he began.

 

“That reminds me of this one time, I was in my office at around midnight. I hadn’t slept for like… 10 days straight I think. It was pitch dark outside and I was at my desk working on a floorplan when I saw this glow coming through the windows, and I thought, ‘that's odd, it's supposed to be a new moon tonight!’ But when I looked outside, I got the worst headache I've ever had, and…” he stopped, remembering the rest of the story.

 

“And what?”

 

“You’re gonna think it's crazy.”

 

“Crazier than building a giant machine in the desert?”

 

He inhaled. “... Alright, here goes.”

 

“I swear on my life I saw this weird skull thing out of the corner of my eye.”

 

Mac's eyes widened, the words sending a chill up his spine.

 

“Talk about insane, right? Anyways, it scared me so badly I went straight back to my apartment and slept. Haven't seen it since.”

 

Come to think of it, Mac hadn't either. The skull hadn’t flickered in his periphery for nearly a year now. That only bothered him more, the seemingly shared hallucination both having not occurred for around the same amount of time. He wanted to ask what it looked like and where he saw it, just to be sure, just to know. Instead he curled up against Nofy, tucking his legs into his chest.

 

“Hey, are you okay?” he asked, concerned.

 

“Yeah,” he sighed. “I just want you to be okay too.”

 

Nofy glanced at the clock, which read at an obscenely late 3:12 AM. They'd both have a lot of fun getting up tomorrow.

 

“We should sleep. It'll be good for both of us.”

 

“Mhm,” he sleepily mumbled, moving himself underneath the covers, wrapping his arms around Nofy.

 

“Goodnight. I love you.”

 

“I love you too.”


End file.
